When asked her opinion of him, an otherwise reserved and quiet beauty issues very blunt but completely honest judgments of the proud and arrogant doctor. Joining him on this deeply intimate and personal journey of deliberate self-discovery is Isak's daughter-in-law Marianne (Bergman regular Ingrid Thulin). The dream is fairly clear his time is fast approaching, causing him to question what he's accomplished. Isak, too, knows exactly what he's doing when he unexpectedly decides to travel by car from Stockholm to Lund University where he's being awarded with an honorary degree. The director, who also wrote the screenplay while in the hospital, wants his audience to be aware of precisely the point - an introspective look at human existence. There are no subtle meanings or indirect messages. It implies Bergman, as well as our protagonist, are tackling the seriously somber themes of self-reflection, the pangs of guilt and death head on. With voice-over narration by Isak, this particular nightmare is our opening introduction to the character and his subjective experience. Inside, Isak finds himself grasping at a helping hand and struggling out of the wooden box. In an instant, a funeral carriage crashes into a lamppost, losing a wheel and the casket carrying its deceased passenger. In one such dream, he walks on a desolate city street in the middle of the day and notices the hands on his pocket watch, along with those of a storefront sign, are missing. Isak Borg, played with solemn intensity by another legendary Swedish filmmaker Victor Sjöström, is an aging widower suddenly plagued with visions, daydreams and twisted nightmares. One very haunting and rather chilling scene in Ingmar Bergman's 'Wild Strawberries' makes a clear allusion to the film's overall theme, the real bone of contention the Swedish filmmaker seems to be grappling with.

Wild strawberries by ingmar bergman